Accreditation on Certification Bodies and Supervision on Laboratories by ACFS

          National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards (ACFS) was established on October 2002 under the Ministerial Regulation. ACFS assigned to be a central unit governing with the national standards on agricultural commodity and food products. 147 Food factories nationwide had been granted GMP/HACCP Certificates by ACFS.

          Due to the cabinet resolution on November 29, 2003, ACFS has been designated by the ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives to take responsibility for setting up standards, monitoring and accrediting Certification body for all types of exported food, and agricultural commodities.

          Consequently, ACFS becomes an Accreditation body (AB) for accrediting certification bodies in the area of agricultural commodities and food products as well as for supervising both public and private agricultural commodities and food laboratories to be in line with the prescribed standards.

          Currently, the agency operates in accordance with ISO/IEC 17011 : 2004 (General requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies) and strengthen the capability as an AB as follows :
          1. Granting the accreditation to certification bodies in the area of agricultural commodities and food products.
          2. Assessing, monitoring, coordinating and supervising on the CB operation.
          3. Studying and researching on accreditation and certification system of agricultural commodity and food standards within and outside the country.
          4. Cooperating or supporting the operations of both related and assigned unit.

          Such practices shall ensure customers confidence on the safety of exported agricultural commodities and food products from Thailand.

          Moreover, ACFS has cooperated with National Accreditation Council, NAC, an Accreditation Body in Thailand under the ministry of Industry. Then, ACFS is the Sub-National Accreditation Body for accrediting certification bodies in the area of agricultural commodities and food products.

          The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been generated as follows ;
          1. Cooperating in the Thailand agency for acting in Pacific Accreditation Cooperation-PAC annual meeting.
          2. Supporting the assessors and experts for assessment the certification bodies as well as providing trainings and seminars, and exchanging the relevant academic in certification.
          3. Announcing the requirements and conditions in relevant of accreditation for certification body.

          Another cooperation with MoU ;
          ACFS and JAS-ANZ (Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand)
          - Accreditation of conformity assessment body
          - Exchange of technical information
          - Training in the relevant fields
          - Other accreditation activities
          Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (PAC) on behalf of the National Standardization Council (NSC), Thailand

          In 2010, ACFS successfully passed PAC peer evaluation on product certification and to be the full member of PAC. Then, ACFS signed for a signatory Accreditation Body of PAC Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (PAC/MLA) – Product Certification.

          There are the accredited Certification bodies in the scope of GMP/HACCP and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) etc.
          - See the name of accredited CB here.

Laboratory
          The cabinet resolution on January 20, 2004 designated ACFS to cooperate, supervise and register the accredited laboratories in the area of exported agricultural commodities and food. Afterwards, ACFS issued rules for accredited laboratory in term of agricultural commodity and food laboratory registration. The regulations were promulgated in the Royal Gazette publication on August 20, 2004.

          In addition, ACFS also provide training courses for personnel of such laboratories that need to improve their standard performance in compliance with the international standards.

          - Click here for requirements/conditions for laboratory registration

          - Click here for Registered Laboratories